Your Privacy on Boagworld, Explained in Plain English

We all worry about our privacy these days, yet most privacy pages suck! You go away none the wiser. That is why on this page, I want to be as transparent as possible by using plain English.

I haven’t created this page to conform to some piece of legislation or cover my backside. I have written it, so you know exactly what information I have on you and how I use it.

What I Know About the Average Visitor

The truth is I don’t know much about the average visitor to my site. I run Momently that provides me with some minimal information about:

How many people visit the website.

Which website led them to boagworld.com.

Which pages they visit.

What device they use.

What browser they are using.

Which country they are connecting via.

But all of that information is anonymous and I cannot (to my knowledge) access details on individual visitors.

My analytics package does not give me access to any personal information.

I also occasionally use a session recorder such as FullStory on specific pages when I am stuck on a particular usability problem. That lets me watch anonymous videos of users interacting with my site allowing me to see where things are going wrong. That said, I know these feel kind of creepy, so I remove them as soon as I have fixed any problem.

I collect some information on those who listen to my podcast, which is held by my podcast hosting company Simplecast. But that is even less than I get from Google Analytics.

What I Know About Sharers

I love it when people share my content, and so I do keep an eye on that using tools like Buffer and Coshedule. I also track the number of people who click through on links I share. But again, I don’t know anything but the vaguest information about who they are. Nothing that is not already in your public social media profile anyway.

What I Know About Subscribers

If somebody decides to signup to my newsletter, I store their:

email address,

first name,

last name,

the type of work they do (if they choose to share that),

with a tool called Convertkit. They are the same company I use for all my sign up forms and have an excellent reputation.

Convertkit is a well-established company that has a good track record in keeping data safe.

Convertkit will tell me if a subscriber has opened an email or clicked a link. I rarely look at individuals. My primary concern is whether the content I am producing is of interest. That said, that data is available to me.

What I Know About Buyers

I do sell one or two things online, although this isn’t big business for me. All the products I sell are using a service called Gumroad, although I also sell courses using a service called Teachable. They handle all transactions, and I never get access to your credit card information or other payment details.

Once again, I selected both Teachable and Gumroad because they are a well known and trusted brand.

However, I do get access to a customer’s email address, name and what product they purchased, as well as any discount codes they used.

What Do I Do With All This Data?

You might be wondering what I do with all the data I have gathered. The honest answer is not much!

I use Google Analytics and MailChimp data to help inform me about what content I should be writing. I never use Gumroad data for anything other than delivering on people’s orders.

I never pass any of the data I collect (including your email address) to any other third party.

What I never do is pass any of the data I collect (including your email address) to any other third party. I also do not track you beyond boagworld.com. I don’t even download that data to my local computer. It remains secure on the site that captured it (Either Google, MailChimp or Gumroad).

The only exception is those people who email me directly.

What Do I Do With Information From Those Who Email Me?

When people email me, I do hold some information on them. I keep most of that information on my personal, password-protected and encrypted laptop. However, I also have some data in the cloud.

My email is via Gmail, and I also store some information in Evernote or Notion. Where possible, I secure these accounts with two-step validation, and they all offer secure encryption to keep your data safe.

Finally, I also use a customer relationship system called Pipedrive. That allows me to keep track of prospective and existing clients, ensuring I can be as responsive as possible.

In all cases, this information is held securely and never shared with anybody without your permission.

What if You Are Unhappy With How I Hold Your Data?

If any of the above concerns you, let me know. I will happily delete any information I hold on you.

If you are a newsletter subscriber, you can unsubscribe at the bottom of each email I send.

If you have purchased a product, I can delete your information after purchase if you so wish.

If you have emailed me, just let me know, and I can remove any information I am holding on you.

If you don’t like Momently tracking you on this site, then I can recommend many other websites you could use instead (although they probably run Google Analytics, which is in my opinion even more intrusive).

I hope you can see, I am as open and transparent as I can be about your privacy, but if you have any questions please drop me an email.

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About Paul Boag

Paul Boag is a user experience consultant, author and speaker. He helps not-for-profits such as the European Commission, UCAS and Doctors Without Borders adapt to the digital world. He also works with many sizeable commercial clients. He refocuses them on user experience and engaging with a new digitally savvy audience. All the while pursuing his not-so-hidden agenda.